Live data from Hacker News

My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

bentasker.co.uk

31–40 of 172 posts

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#31
post #8

I've never quite understood this sort of anti-scammer content and what its appeal is to readers. There are a million YouTube videos and other articles out there that explain, analyze, as well as mock[1] and denigrate scammers - who are essentially modern day slaves [2]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E [2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/human-trafficking-vie...

[deleted]

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#33
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think at this point pig butchering is so famous that if you fall for it you'd fall for any scam.

If only that was true. In reality, outside of the more online-fraud-savvy demographics...

Getting scammed on Runescape should be part of the school curriculum.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#35
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was probably a Chinese slave in a Myanmar boiler room. Romance scammers and “pig butchering” scams are usually run by Asian gangs. Nasty folks. The “good” news, however, is that AI is likely to make a big impact, here, and reduce the need to kidnap poor folks.

[flagged]

I find it strange that you seem to think he called them nasty because they are Asian an not because of the slavery and scams.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only that was true. In reality, outside of the more online-fraud-savvy demographics...

Getting scammed on Runescape should be part of the school curriculum.

I was scammed out of about $4 when I was kid playing Ragnarök Online. Taught me zero trust. In hindsight, it's a cheap but effective learning experience... well, until I met my now ex-wife.

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#37
post #8

I've never quite understood this sort of anti-scammer content and what its appeal is to readers. There are a million YouTube videos and other articles out there that explain, analyze, as well as mock[1] and denigrate scammers - who are essentially modern day slaves [2]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E [2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/human-trafficking-vie...

Hi from Argentina! Yesterday someone tried to hack my WhatsApp. He call me and said something like: > Hello! I'm from phone company $Name. Someone tried to register your WhatsApp number form $Another_city. We are calling to confirm because otherwise we will have to block your phone line with $Name. The first problem was that $Name was not my phone company. I though it was a " change company " call that is worse than…

(Last month there was a crackdown that freed over 7000 call centre slaves in Myanmar.

In that operation those freed actually ended up in a kind of captive holding situation https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/myanmar-sc...

The article mentions that the call centres in Myanmar were targeting Chinese and Americans, so although the call centers are very far away the people they are scamming might be a lot closer. Its a very international problem.)

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#38
post #19

One warning, this scam, with it's fast timeline and request for funds to be sent to the girlfriend is a classic, but modern scams can be quite different than this. "pig butchering" scams can run for months of contact with no requests for money, and then instead of asking for money, the user "invests" into what appear initialy to be profitable investments alongside the scammer.

I think at this point pig butchering is so famous that if you fall for it you'd fall for any scam.

Many years ago when advance-fee email scams [0] became common I was likewise amazed that anyone would fall for them. Then it was pointed out that the seemingly obvious warning signs were a feature and not a bug, they are there to filter out everyone with a minimum of common sense and ensure that the scammers, who are casting their nets wide, only get responses from a few people but those people who do respond are quite gullible. The pig butchering thing is just a different filter meant to trap a different kind of vulnerable person.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#39
post #8

I've never quite understood this sort of anti-scammer content and what its appeal is to readers. There are a million YouTube videos and other articles out there that explain, analyze, as well as mock[1] and denigrate scammers - who are essentially modern day slaves [2]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E [2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/human-trafficking-vie...

Are you maybe falling into the trap of being surprised at other people not yet knowing what you know? "Today's ten thousand" as it's called in xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1053/

If you're not already jaded with the topic, it's really interesting! There's a lot of detail and nuance to it, and yeah, there's some satisfaction in seeing the bad guys get foiled for once.

This particular investigation doesn't actually mock or denigrate the scammers. The author sets a strict rule at the very start:

Techniques not people: the aim of this is not to identify the individuals behind the scams, it's to see how they work.

That doesn't actually rule out mockery, but they don't engage in it anyway (beyond a "cheeky bastards" aside, which in any case is more about acknowledging their chutzpah).

Re: My Scammer Girlfriend: Baiting a Romance Fraudster

#40
post #10
post #8

I've never quite understood this sort of anti-scammer content and what its appeal is to readers. There are a million YouTube videos and other articles out there that explain, analyze, as well as mock[1] and denigrate scammers - who are essentially modern day slaves [2]. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzz3NeDz3E [2]: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/human-trafficking-vie...

It’s a form of “justice porn”. You’re right that these scammers are victims themselves. But seeing how they treat vulnerable groups (particularly less tech savvy, trusting, older people - which may well be your mom one day) is absolutely fucking vile. Also, some anti-scammer YouTubers are legitimately very skilled and entertaining to watch. Kitboga is the first that comes to mind. He has all these voices, characters,…

[dead]
Post reply on HN